Which Iranian officials have been targeted in the US-Israeli attacks?
The fate of senior Iranian officials has been the focus of intense speculation since US and Israeli strikes began on Iran early on Saturday.
Nearly all senior leaders were targeted, Israeli media have reported, although Iranian outlets have downplayed some of these claims.
An Israeli military official said the joint strikes, which had been planned over months, targeted sites where senior Iranians officials were convening
"Three sites where gatherings of the Iranian terror regime were taking place were struck simultaneously, and several senior figures essential to the management of the campaign and the regime’s governance were eliminated," the Israeli official said.
Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that Iran's Defence Minister Amir Nasirzadeh and Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) commander Mohammed Pakpour are believed to have been killed in Israeli attacks.
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Israeli sources told media outlets that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian were targeted, but the outcome remains unclear.
Iran's Tasnim News Agency confirmed that areas near the presidential palace and Khamenei’s compound were struck. However, an official told Reuters that Khamenei was not in Tehran and had been moved to a secure location.
Iranian state media reported that Pezeshkian was unharmed, along with Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Army Amir Hatami and Judiciary Chief Gholam‑Hossein Mohseni‑Ejei.
Israeli media additionally claimed that Ali Shamkhani, a senior advisor to Khamenei, was among those targeted.
Meanwhile, in an unconfirmed report, an Iranian source close to the establishment told Reuters that several senior commanders in the IRGC and political officials had been killed.
Middle East Eye could not independently verify these reports.
Officials killed in the last war
During Israel’s 12-day war on Iran in June last year, several top Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists were assassinated.
Among those targeted was Major General Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the IRGC and the highest-ranking official, and General Mohammad Bagheri, chief of armed forces general staff.
Major General Gholam Ali Rashid, head of the Khatam al-Anbia Central Headquarters, Iran’s key strategic military command body, and Major General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the IRGC’s Air Defence, which is believed to be behind Tehran’s expanding drone capabilities in recent years, were also killed.
Israel also killed Fereydoun Abbasi, an Iranian nuclear engineer and IRGC member who served as head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran from 2011 to 2013 and as a member of parliament from 2020 to 2024.
Another prominent scientist targeted was Mohammad-Mehdi Tehranci, a theoretical physicist and former president of Islamic Azad University, described in Iranian reports as a strong advocate for Iran’s scientific sovereignty.
Shamkhani, who had attended talks with the US, was also thought to have been killed by an Israeli strike in the early hours of 13 June, the first day of the war.
However, a week later, Shamkhani said in a letter to Khamenei that he was alive. It remains to be seen if he has been killed this time, as has been claimed.
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